


We'll Do That Together

by infinitewritings



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Spoilers, F/M, Friendship/Love, I had to yell at steve, Love, Original Character(s), Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Sad, This Is Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-12 22:53:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16004975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/infinitewritings/pseuds/infinitewritings
Summary: Post Infinity War, right after Thanos' snap everyone is trying to make sense of what just happened. There are lost friends, major questions, uncontrollable rage, and missed dates. With the added tension from two years ago that still hasn't gone away, nothing is making sense.But there is still the question of Tony Stark. What has happened to him in those two years and where is he now?





	We'll Do That Together

    The leaves ruffled quietly. The air was thick. Everything was a pin drop silence. Little specks of dust surrounded what was left of the team. 

    “Oh god,” Steve managed to whisper as he kept his hand on Vision. The entire world seemed to feel heavier.    

    “Sam, where’s Sam?” Rhodey’s eyes kept jumping bush to bush, teammate to teammate. Sam wasn’t too far from him when Thanos flicked them away from him.

    Bucky’s disappearance, Wanda’s disintegration, and Groot’s good-bye played through her head. Every little cell was cranking its gears and working on creating a thought--an understanding of what had just played in front of everyone. The sun felt hotter, her suit stuck to her body tighter, her breath was uneven. 

    Her mind went red, an alarm blaring in her ears, the fell apart again. 

    _TONY._  The name blinked continuously in front of her eyes.  

    No one knew if it was the specks of dusts they were trekking inside, or if it were just mud and no one had the heart to ask the person beside them. M’Baku had stared at Steve blankly, trying to keep up the persona of a general of an army, they did not exchange parting words before Steve walked into the jet and Natasha flew them away. M’Baku knew that if he were to try to speak up, his eyes would well up and his voice would break and he would fall to his knees yelling to the world and anyone who would listen to give his people back to him. He and Okoye had shared glances and her glazed eyes reminded him that he may be the only one left to take the throne. 

    The computer kept its continuous sound beeping periodically through the speaker. The clock ticked away. Tony hated that clock, Tony liked the silence. He had said it reminded him of how much his brain was buzzing.    

    _Tony_ likes _the silence. Tony_ hates _the clock._

    Her mind corrected itself. As long she can’t identify those specks of dust as actually Tony then there was no reason to keep him in the past. The team sat silently in the dining area, an area Steve had grown accustomed to before he took the on-the-run life. 

    As the drone of the computer continued, she continued her pace to Tony’s R&D room, planted herself in front of a screen and began typing. 

    BLEEDING EDGE. 

    SUIT SPECS. 

    NAVIGATION. 

    LOCATION. 

    “I was not able to find any entries from the Boss after he was seen flying towards the saucer.” FRIDAY’s voice was barely a whisper, as if she knew she wasn’t helping. 

    “He didn’t pop up anywhere? Not even maybe a glitch?” 

    “13 minutes ago, I had received a notification of depleting content of nanoparticles. There was a report of damaged particles. I can only assume Boss began using the particles to create different Bleeding Edge specifics. The suit is still quite new, it only carries a finite number of nanites and if Boss was constantly trying to rebuild to create different weapons the particles are getting lost and used. Even in combat, the suit is bound to lose particles. The report had recorded only 40% of remaining nanoparticles.”

    “So he’s alive.” 

    “Taking into account he could be anywhere in space, that report could potentially be hours old.” She hung her head, bit deeper into her lip as her mind connected the dots she kept buried. 

    He could be gone.

 

“Are you alright?” Her eyes blinked back to the computer as FRIDAY’s voice registered in her head. _Gone._  Her ears rang, her eyes stung, and her body backtracked through the room and out the doors. Thanos may have hand ripped through whatever was left of the team to get to Vision but they still weren’t together. There was no belief in them being together, it was only a necessity. They had no real plan. Even with Ultron, they had an idea on how to design themselves. 

    The team hung their heads in silence. No one was moving but she could hear their minds producing names of people they wanted to check up in. Natasha’s eyes had gone towards the phone, back to the table then towards her necklace, and eventually closed. Her hands gripped the arrow that hung around her neck as her body refused to do anything else. Rhodey gripped his phone, trying to understand what he could say once he started moving through his contact list. Could he call his past trainees, his previous captains and generals? What would he say to them? What if they didn’t pick up, should he try different numbers? Rocket kept his fists closed—whatever he had of Groot he didn’t want to let go. 

    Bruce stared at his hands. What if the Hulk came out? The Hulk had come out before but he wasn’t able to land a proper hit on Thanos; what it have made a difference again? Could his loss of control over the big green man have cost them Vision? 

    “Tony’s last update came from his suit 15 minutes ago.” She announced to them. Rhodey was the first one to look up.

    “Do we know where he is?”

    “FRIDAY hasn’t been able to track the exact coordinates, nor does she knew exactly when the message was sent. But we do know his suit is…or was depleting.” 

    “What do you mean? What about the nanotechnology?” Bruce’s hands formed into fists. He was done looking at them, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t still angry at himself. 

    “There are only a finite number of particles in that suit. The particles are used depending on he uses them and what happens during combat.” 

    “How much of his suit is left?”

    “Maybe less than 40%.” 

    Steve covered his face and let out a sigh in his hand. The one person he needed answers from, a reassurance from wasn’t even on the same planet. 

 

    She didn’t sit next to Steve. She didn’t sit next to the team. The floor seemed more comforting as she leaned her back to the wall beside the shelves she and Steve helped build. The entire compound had felt empty and impersonal. They had taken upon themselves to liven up the area, to give it a more avengers team feeling. Throughout the years they had spent together, their phones and Tony’s bots had captured enough moments for them to fill countless albums. Steve printed the photos. She bought the frames. They placed every single image meticulously and Tony wasn’t ready to admit it but that wall meant more to him than anything else in that entire compound. 

    Tony and her had changed a few since then. She had caught Tony looking at a picture of the entire team and beside it the photo of her and Steve. His jaw was clenched and his arms crossed in front of his chest. The next day they printed new photos but kept the picture of the team turned upside down on the corner, behind a frame that now held a picture that Happy had taken of the three of them. 

    Her fingers slid the photo closer to her, turning it to face her. 

    “There has to be a way to fix this.” Bruce whispered.

    “I will kill him as many times as I need to.” Thor’s voice was rough. He was disappointed in himself. His people expected him to enact the revenge. He owed it to Heimdall. He owed it to Asgard. He owed it to Loki. 

    “How do we even begin fixing this?” Rhodey spoke to Bruce. 

    “He brought back Vision, even after Wanda was able to k…” Bruce took in a breath, “even after Wanda managed to keep the stone away. The Doctor, Doctor Strange, spoke about a Time Stone and I can only assume that is what Thanos used."

    “Would you be able to figure out how to use it?”

    “After we looked at Loki’s Scepter we were able to figure out its properties, if I get enough time with the Stones or the gloves there is a chance to figure something about them.”

    “How could we ever get close to the glove, let alone Thanos?” Natasha spoke up, still gripping the necklace in her hand. 

    “Together.” Steve finally spoke.  

 

 _"A hostile alien army cam charging in through a hole in space. We’re standing 300 feet below it. We’re the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the live-long day, but that up there?_ That’s the endgame. _How were you guys planning on beating that?” Tony’s voice had gotten silent and fearful that day. Every time he would bring up the threat from space, she knew his mind was playing the images in his head like a broken recorder._

_“Together,” Steve’s voice was strong, powerful. He believed in it._

_"We’ll lose."_

_"Then we’ll do that together, too.”_

 

The crunch of the photograph helped her blink back to the current conversation. The silence was gone. Thor was trying to figure out how to find Thanos again—who he could see, talk to, ask about the whereabouts. Bruce was already calculating in his head on how to bring out the hulk but also how to test the Stones and how to use them to work in their favour. They were working together to collectively construct a plan so they could surprise Thanos. 

    _Together._

 _Do it together._ They were supposed to be together. They were supposed to be always preparing themselves for the worst. Tony wasn’t supposed to fly off by himself to something he wasn’t prepared for. Tony and her were supposed to be together, going to their dinner that he promised he would crack open a cook book for. 

     _“I’m a builder. I build things, I can build…” he motioned to the thing in front of him, “ ...a dish.” Tony spoke as he munched on the breakfast she had put in front of him that morning. She had told him if wasn’t there to actually physically put nutrition in front of he wouldn’t have anything to consume other than coffee—the only thing he seemed to know how to prepare._

 _“You’re not really_ building, _Tony.”_

_“Cook, if you will. Sue me.” He shoved a piece of the omelette in his face, “actually no, don’t. Doesn’t look good on the company, can’t have the bad press.”_

_“You need patience to cook something, have you seen something, you need something to play with. You can’t stay still.”_

_“I’ve seen you_ cook _, what do you think you do with your spatula.”_

_“Maybe I will sue you.”_

_They had started to have normal mornings—mornings with coffee, breakfast, and the morning paper. Tony was creating new traditions for them._

    Taking support from the wall, she picked herself up and paced towards the dining table where only two days ago, she and Tony sat having breakfast. She needed the newspaper. One hand gripping the old photograph, she searched the table. Files scattered across the surface along with coffee mugs and Tony’s smoothie glasses. 

    Under a thin manila file folder the New York Times sat comfortably. There was a thick coffee mug outline from her cup that morning. Different news articles were scattered throughout the page—some talking about the UN meeting with the Wakandian King T’Challa, another had an update about the Sokovia Accords, and something else about college funding. 

    Tony always wrote differently, depending on the urgency of the matter. In block letters, above all the news articles, in red pen read “Need cookbook, dinner at 8”. The word dinner was scratched out and overtop was written “home-cooked dinner”. 

    She bit her lip as her body went through a shiver. Everything about her felt cold and miserable. Her grip on both the photograph and the newspaper tightened as she tried to suck in any tears that were threatening fall. 

    “What is it?” Rhodey spoke up. Ever since she had got up and started ruffling through the paper work on the table the entire team had their eyes on her. She was quiet and in her own world and focused on finding the recent remnants of Tony that she forgot anyone else was there. 

    Rhodey still managed to keep his step light, after everything, never losing his training. He knew about them and how they were growing together and spending time together. He understood how they built each other up and supported each other since they both down respectively. They had shared their quiet moments, where they sat in each other’s presence, gaining comfort and realizing what it meant for them to have each other. Rhodey knew about that stolen moment in Tony’s R&D where Tony and her stood so close to each other they could have felt each other’s breath. Looking at the newspaper, Rhodey squeezed her shoulder. 

    "We were supposed to be together.” She sniffed back the tears. 

    “You are together.” 

    “Not us, Rhodey. We were supposed to be a team. We were supposed to stick together. The world depended on the avengers. Not on half of a team.” The rest of the team looked up, their eyes jumping from one another. It wasn’t like none of them didn’t think about it but they weren’t ready to admit it. 

    “It’s okay.”

    “It’s not! Ever since two years ago we had a chance, we could have tried to do something, but we didn’t even have enough time to plan. We could have known about Tony.” Her voice turned into a whisper as her heart broke a little bit more. 

    “We can still do something.” Steve’s voice broke through the silence as his voice hung over the heads of the rest of the team.

    “ _We_  cant do anything, there isn’t a _we_ anymore!” She wasn’t talking about the avengers. 

    “There’s no reason to lose hope.”

    “I lost hope a long time ago, Captain.” She could see Steve’s face flinch away. Captain was impersonal for them. They were no longer the same people two years ago—she didn’t want to be the same person to him. 

    “We don’t know anything about the Stones but they had the ability to bring back Vision, they have the power to take people away from us, they would have the power to bring them back.” Bruce nodded.

    “The man I met when I entered Earth, the Doctor, he had a Time Stone, if we managed to take that back—“

    “With the damage that titan has done, we would need more than one stone back.” Thor interjected Bruce, “singularly the stones are strong but not strong as when they are when put together.”

    Again. Silence. 

    The clock ticked away. 

    After everything that happened, they’d assume the world would be burning but nothing moved. Even the leaves on the trees didn’t dare to move. 

    Bruce shuffled in his seat, remembering something. “Why weren’t we together?” 

    Steve’s jaw stiffened and Natasha’s gaze moved towards the ground. Bruce knew something about what happened two years ago. He knew the name and he knew it pushed them apart but he still didn’t understand what really happened—or how bad it got.  

    “Because we’re are the same as we were two years ago.” Rhodey had stiffened up as he fall his fall all over again in head. 

    “That’s because of the Accords.” Steve whispered.

    “Oh my god. Of course. How long were you waiting to bring that up?” Her voice finally rose as she stared at him from the dining table. 

    “It’s not about bringing it up, we all know the reason.” Steve didn’t look at her. He could feel burning into his skull. 

    “The Accords were not the reason, Captain.” _Captain._

“Whatever happened two years happened, we need to move away from that and focus on fixing the wrong.”

    “Whatever happened, like you jamming your shield into Tony’s chest.” 

    “I’m not here to ask for forgiveness. I’m here to help, we all are."

    “You have your head so far up your ass!”

    “What is your problem?!” Steve stood up and turned towards to stare at her. His hands were in fists and his eyes a mixture of anger and exhaustion. They never had this conversation and they needed it—only they imagined to have this argument on a different day.

    “YOU! You are my problem! The accords aren’t the reason we aren’t together! You changed everything and never realized what you’ve done. My problem is you never considered to communicate with me. You just automatically assumed that I wouldn’t believe you. We weren’t together because you couldn’t imagine trusting any one of us.” The entire room went silent and looked at Steve. 

    "You had signed the accords. It was already too late.” Steve breathed. 

    "Don’t try to sell me that, you knew about Bucky way before Vienna happened, you just didn’t want to tell me. You just assumed that because Tony and I have a longer relationship that I wouldn’t listen to you."

    "I didn’t want you to have to choose.” Steve had inched closer to her, close enough to see Tony’s scribbles on the newspaper. 

    "BULLSHIT. You made the decision for me! You decided on your own that it wasn’t worth me knowing, that I didn’t need to know, that I shouldn’t know. You don’t tell anyone anything unless they just happen to with you. You told Nat about Bucky, because she was with you. You told Sam because he was with you. You decided for me. You didn’t give me a chance. You didn’t give me the facts. You didn’t give Tony the facts.” She was pointing her finger at him, using the hand that clutched their photograph. The team was always giving her strength and helping her find her power—her reason to still be a part of them. Her anger stemmed from them, from the time they were happy. 

    "We had already fallen apart." 

    "But Tony came, Steve.” Her voice had gotten soft as she saw Tony flying to talk to Sam, as she heard how much Tony regretted seeing his team caged up like animals. Her anger lessened at the thought of Tony arriving at Siberia, promising her he’ll do everything to help Steve and his friend. "Tony came to help you, to fight on your side, to protect someone he didn’t know anything about because you didn’t want to open your mouth. He came to Siberia as a friend. But you kept a secret. You lied to Tony. You knew what happened to his parents but you didn’t tell him." 

    "I couldn’t tell him.” Rhodey stared at the both of them, his ears perked. Tony didn’t tell him everything. 

    "BULLSHIT ROGERS. You knew about his parents. You knew what happened and because you chose not to tell him, you had to pay for the consequences. What ever happened in that bunker was because you wouldn't open your mouth. Because you decided to make the decisions for everyone. Because you thought you knew better. But you know nothing. You think because your name is captain that you know what to do, who to make decisions for. You know nothing, you came out of a bottle, the only thing you know is how to take care of yourself! Tony learns, he’s learning, he’s amending his mistakes. But you’re a hypocrite. Telling him you’re leaving him the avengers. You left him with an AI and a cripple. But you…” With the photo still in her hand she reached over to grab handfuls of his shirt as she stared up to him. Steve’s hand gripped the chair near him as he looked down at the love of his life.

    “But you left him alone. You left me alone. You left us alone when we needed you, when we needed to stick together. But you left because YOU thought YOU knew better because you think you have the right to make people’s decisions for them. You know nothing! Now we don’t know what to happened to Tony because the team wasn’t together.” She shoved him back and threw the photo at him. "And you wrote you were doing what’s best for the team.” Steve held onto the glossy paper in his hand, knowing exactly what it was. She sniffed back her tears and kept her eyes away from everyone. She knew this wasn’t the right time to argue about what happened two years ago but her mind was trying to understand every little detail that happened and nothing was making sense. The only thing that seemed to make sense to her was how much she needed to see Tony and hold him and tell him how she feels. She didn’t want to think about the nights she had jolted out of bed because she heard Tony screaming in pain. She was trying to make her brain stop showing her moments of Tony waking up from nightmares about his chest. Tony had told her that his dreams weren’t just about Afghanistan—every time it felt like his chest was being ripped open. 

    “I—“ Steve began when the computers began to beep.

    “I’m sorry to interrupt but a ship from outer space has just entered the atmosphere.” Friday announced to the room. Everyone grabbed whatever they had of their weapons and rushed outside. Thor gripped his Strombreaker as he stood in front of his team.

    “He couldn’t be that big of a fool.”

    “Or very smart, coming back at our lowest.” Natasha replied. Bruce pulled his sleeve to his fist to try to call out for the Hulk again before it was too late. Steve looked up to the ship, getting ready to predict its landing as it came closer into view. Rocket’s eyes widened. 

    “Quill?” Rocket whispered as she looked at him and back to the ship.

    “It’s not Thanos?” She asked him.

    “That’s my ship.” Everyone looked down at Rocket who kept his eyes glued to the ship. He was trying to figure out what to say at his team. Would he run towards Gamora? How would he tell them about Groot? Would all of them be in the ship? 

    The ship inched closer and Rocket saw areas of damage—more damages than the last time he saw it. No one had lowered the weapons as the ship came to a hover and began to descent near them, almost missing the trees. No one came out of the ship, it was as if it was taking a breathe. Rocket ran over to the door, he had just began to type in the ship code—a silly earth song name—when the door opened. 

    “Quill—“ Rocket began when Nebula showed up at the entrance. With Tony right behind her. 

    “TONY!” She yelled as she raced towards the ship and closer to him. Tony took a couple steps away from the ship, moving closer to her, as she stopped in front of him. Her breath hitched and loud and her eyes filled with tears. She never thought she’d see him again. 

    “Hey,” Tony whispered.

    “Don’t you ever leave without me ever again.” She cupped his face in her hands as he closed his eyes, appreciating her touch. He leaned down to her shoulder and pulled her in a hug, with his grip tight around her waist.

    Nebula inched closer to Rocket who kept looking between her and the entrance. He needed more of his team to walk out, this wasn’t the time to play jokes.

    “Where is—“ Rocket started as Nebula shook her head. She knelt down to put her hand on his shoulder.

    “No…that’s not true. You don’t know Quill. He loves playing jokes.”

    “Rocket.”

    “He loves to play stupid jokes on me. Where is Gamora?”

    “None of them…they all just…”   

    “They couldn’t have. Not like—“ Rocket opened his fist to reveal specks of dirt. 

    “I’m sorry, Rocket.” 

    “No.” He whispered as she held onto him.

    

    “You’re back. You’re really back.” She spoke into his chest and whatever was left of the suit. Her voice was breaking, her eyes hurt as she tried to keep her tears locked.

    “I am.” Tony whispered as he placed a kiss on her shoulder and began to look around him. His eyes were tired when he saw whatever was left of the team. Rhodey stood close to her, letting them have their moment. His eyes caught Steve standing by himself. No Sam. No Sergeant Barnes. No King T’Challa. No Vision. No Wanda. Tony knew. Tony looked at his hands and a shiver went through his spine.

    “Tony?” She looked up at him and his face, under all that dried blood and those injuries, had turned pale. His knees start to feel weak as he grips her tighter. 

    “Tony, look at me.” His eyes keep blinking as they tried to focus and stay open.

    “I’m tired.” His voice was quiet, less than a whisper. His lips were dry. His eyes kept closing as his knees reach the ground. Her hands hold onto him, gripping his side and his shoulder.

    “Tony, open your eyes, look at me.” Her voice loud, afraid. Between his blinks, he takes in a glimpse of her as his eyes close and everything around him goes dark. The last thing to reach him was her voice screaming his name. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Can you tell what team I have been on?
> 
> Ever since Civil War, I had to yell at Steve. And there are so many different ideas in my head as to when to yell at him. Another idea, at another time, in another location is still writing itself so that might still come up. Either way, after watching Infinity War 4 times in theatres and listening to its soundtrack I had to do something.  
> Some may not agree with me with the whole Steve part, but that's okay.  
> Either way, let me know what you think. I don't know if this is part 1 of something but right now this is something.
> 
> Let me know what you thought! 
> 
> Also, just FYI, I do two hundred percent love Steve.


End file.
